Prometheus cantata (Schubert)
Prometheus ( D 451) is a cantata for solo voices, choir and orchestra written in 1816 by Franz Schubert based on a text by Philipp Draexler von Carin . The work is lost.
Work and work history
Emergence
Several law students, including Count Constantin Wickenburg decided the professor of political sciences, Heinrich Joseph Watteroth to surprise in 1816 on his name (July 12) with a musical celebration that in to his house in the suburbs of Vienna Erdberg associated Garden should take place. During a walk in Baden, the student Philipp Draexler von Carin composed the cantata “Prometheus”, which was given to Franz Schubert, who was personally unknown to him, for setting. Schubert wrote in his diary of June 17, 1816: “ That day I composed the first meal for money. Namely a cantata for Mr. Professors Wattrot from Dräxler. The fee is 100 fl. WW "
performance
The rehearsals for the performance took place at the university. The performance was postponed several times due to unfavorable weather, but could take place on July 24, 1816. Maria Lagusius-Griesinger († 1861) and Joseph Götz had taken over the solo parts of Gäa and Prometheus . Students participated in the choir and orchestra. Count Wickenburg gave the address for Watteroth. The performance appears to have been successful. Leopold von Sonnleithner suggested the work for performance in the Wiener Musikverein , but it did not happen.
Another story
In the last years of his life, Schubert was asked several times to make the piece available for a performance, for example by the Göttweig Monastery , to which the score and the parts written by Schubert himself were sent. This sheet music is said to have been returned to Schubert, but has been lost since his death.
Locations
The house in which Heinrich Joseph Watteroth lived at the beginning of the 19th century - as well as his students Johann Mayrhofer and Joseph von Spaun for a while - stood in Vienna-Erdberg until 2010. The remains of the building were partly destroyed by bombs in World War II The property was supposed to give way to a new building in 2006, but the Federal Monuments Office and the Landstrasse district administration intervened. Today only the reconstructed so-called “Schubert Tower” has survived. There is a memorial plaque on it, which commemorates the performance of the cantata and was donated by the Wiener Schubertbund in 1923.
Web links
- Chapter for 1816 in the Schubert biography by Heinrich Kreissle von Hellborn 1865 at Zeno.org
- The Schubert Tower in Erdbergstrasse. District Museum Landstrasse, archived from the original on April 4, 2015 ; accessed on January 5, 2018 .